I'm practically falling asleep, sitting on a bar stool at Keller's Diner and watching John flip burgers. The ceaseless rhythm has me in a daze- lift, flip, drop, repeat. My eyes are glazing over, and I probably look like a zombie.

"Want another milkshake, Kathryn?" Sally, my favorite waitress at the diner, swoops by, beaming at me and grabbing my cup from the counter.

"I've already had three. Thanks, though." I smile at her, my daze broken.

It's April vacation, and once again, I'm going nowhere. Alex is totally swamped with work, and I'm not allowed to stay home after the unfortunate Marshmallow Incident, so I'm here at the diner every day.

"I'm bored, Daddy," I whine across the counter. I did all of my homework already, finished my assigned reading, and wrote out Miranda lyrics for the first half of the show.

"If you're that bored, strap on an apron and help Sally." John flips a burger behind his back, then slides a plate underneath. He taps the little bell on the counter. "Dolly, order up for nineteen!" Dolly, another one of the waitresses, spins over and grabs the plate.

"Okay, why not? I've got time to kill." I jump up from the stool. "Sally, throw me an apron?"

She laughs. "You helping?"

"Why not? I've got nothing better to do with my time." I catch the rolled-up black apron that's thrown at me. Strapping it on over my jeans, I grab an order pad and get to work.

********

"Yo, Kath, we're seating someone at your section!" Jennah, one of the waitresses who came in an hour ago, waves to me.

"Got it!" I balance a stack of coffee mugs on my tray, then run them into the kitchen. I take the moment to survey myself in the warped reflection from a toaster. I'm sweaty, and my hair has become a giant mass of cotton candy atop my head. There's a spare elastic on my wrist, so I pull my hair back as well as I can, then go out to my next table.

"Hey, welcome to Keller's Diner. I'm Kathryn, I'll be your- Dad?"

Alex is sitting at the table, and looks quite surprised to see me. "Kathryn, why are you waiting tables?"

"I got bored. Anyway, what'll it be?" I shift my tray on my shoulder.

"I just wanted to talk to you and your dad. Can you bring him over here?"

"Sure. Want some coffee, at least?" Coffee is like the lifeblood of every diner ever. We've got more of it here than any other item on the menu.

"If you don't mind." Alex hands me his menu, and I'm off through the kitchen. John'll want coffee, too, so I pour two mugs.

"Dad, come out here with me. You've been called to table three." I hook my pinky around the coffee cup handles, then parade back out into the main floor, John trailing behind me. He sees Alex, and his face lights up.

"Hey, baby! You didn't tell me you were coming."

"It's called a surprise, dear. Now, we're going home and packing up, because we're going to Canada!"

John sits down in the booth and stirs creamer into his coffee. "Are you on the run from the law again?"

"That was one time!" Alex looks defensive.

"What happened?" I slide into the booth as well. "I want to hear the story."

"You don't get to hear the story until you're older." Alex takes a sip of his coffee. "Does it really need five sugars, John?"

"Coffee is gross without at least four," he protests. "Anyway, if you're not evading arrest, why are we going?"

"I'm taking a break from work! I've planned a perfect weekend for us to spend together as a family, and we're driving up tomorrow! It's only three hours to drive." Alex spreads his arms wide.

"That's going to be awesome! I can't wait." I reach for John's mug of coffee and take a sip. "Gross, Daddy! This tastes like licking the inside of the sugar bag...not that I've ever done that or anything."

"I'll have to tell Amelia that I'm taking the weekend off, but I think we can manage that." Amelia is John's boss, the owner of the diner. She's toweringly tall, six feet even without her customary heels, and she's got red hair and a smile that can mean you're getting a raise or you're getting fired.

"I'm so excited. Everything is going to go perfectly!"

***********

The car sputters to a stop on the highway, the Check Engine light flashing an unfriendly orange. Alex tries to turn onto the next exit, but the only resulting sound is a grinding of gears.

"I thought you took it for an inspection last month!" He smacks a hand down on the dashboard.

"I did! They said the light was just going on as a routine check." John turns the radio down, muting Nirvana.

I unbuckle and lean into the front seat, checking to see what's wrong. "We could get out and push it to the breakdown lane."

"The small child is right. It's just a compact car, so I bet if we were careful and put it in Neutral, we could do it." Alex unbuckles, too, and opens his door.

All three of us get out and begin to push the car. It's harder than it sounds- the small car is still heavy, awkward, and thoroughly unapologetic in its heavy awkwardness. By some miracle, it only takes us fifteen minutes to get into the breakdown lane.

"I'm hungry," I complain. We planned to eat breakfast on the road, but that never quite happened.

"I would offer to drive you to some food, but that's obviously not an option. I'm going to call Triple A, see if they can get us a rental on short notice."

"We can walk down the breakdown lane off this exit- I think there's a Burger King or something. Lexi, do you want to stay in the car to call Triple A?" John cracks his knuckles.

"I think I will, but you need to bring me back some fries." Alex gets back in the car, pulling a jacket on. Even I can feel the damp chill in the air through my flannel. He picks up his cell phone and dials a number. "Hello, is this Triple A? Yes, I'll hold."

John and I walk down the breakdown lane, him holding my hand and me shouldering a giant backpack. There's a light drizzle of rain, and the sky is grey, but the cool air feels good. I hum a little song as we go- Yorktown, from Miranda. Unfortunately, John doesn't know the words yet, despite the fact that we're going to the show this coming week.

"Gotta go, gotta get the job done, gotta start a new nation, gotta meet my son!" I call out, dancing in a circle. We walk into the Burger King parking lot, and John has to yank me out of the way of oncoming traffic.

"Watch it, Kathryn!" He pulls me back onto the curb.

"Sorry, Daddy." I wobble along the curb line, but trip over my shoelace and land on my butt. "Ouch!"

"You are such a klutz. Come on and act normal, please." John held the door open for me, and I skip inside.

********

"Well, at least we have a car now." Alex sighs, picking at his sandwich with disinterest.

The aforementioned car is a ten-passenger van, but at least it exists. Our own car is in the shop, and we're all sitting on a hill having a picnic. I'm wrapped up in a jacket and tucked between John and Alex. The air is cold, cutting into my face.

"It's fine, Dad." I take a sip of my giant hot chocolate, then yelp when it burns my tongue. It's delicious, but it's so horribly hot that I can feel my mouth burning.

John laughs. "I told you that was hot, but you didn't listen."

I set the cup down. "I learned how to do a backward somersault in dance last week. Daddy, Daddy, look!" Jumping up, I stretch and then bend into a pretzel. I kick over, and my dads applaud politely.

Unfortunately, I don't stop rolling over. Head over heels, I tumble down the hill, screaming the whole way down until I land in a freezing cold pond. The water is so cold, I'm almost instantly numb. There's pond weed in my hair and green slime on my nose, and as I cough, a little fish flops out of my shirt.

Alex and John come running down the hill. "Kat, are you okay?"

I spit out some pond water, cough three times, and then nod. "Yeah, just cold and wet. Also, there was a fish in my bra." I wring out my hair, wincing when the icy droplets of water sting my skin. "I've only got one set of dry clothes in the car, and those are for tomorrow."

Five minutes later, I'm outfitted in Alex's suit jacket, John's spare I (heart) Turtles shirt, and my fluffy pink flannel pajama pants. There was nothing I could do about my sneakers, though, so those are squelching and making awful sounds. The shirt hangs down to my waist, and I had to cuff the sleeves of the jacket four times, but at least I'm warm and mostly dry.

"You look ridiculous," Alex laughs.

"I want to see you do a backward somersault into a pond, then you can talk about ridiculous," I retort, pulling a piece of pond weed out of my hair.

"The lady hath a bite," John quips, hugging me.

"I'm fierce!" I yelp, then pretend to bite him. He yelps and recoils, and I giggle. "Can we go moose-spotting?"

"I always wondered about the plural," Alex says curiously. "Why is it just 'moose'? Shouldn't it be mooses? Meese? Or perhaps just 'one moose and then several more'?"

"The plural is just 'moose', Dad." I yawn.

"Unacceptable! That's so mundane, so boring, so ordinary. I like special things- like you and John, for instance." We climb into the car, and I try to avoid getting the seats wet. My sneakers are still oozing smelly water.

Driving through the woods of Canada, Alex is pointing out every squirrel and chipmunk that we see. "Is that a moose? How about that?"

"Dad, have you ever seen a moose before?" I laugh, taking a big deep breath of the fresh air rushing in through the windows.

"I've never even been to Canada before!" He beams, like a tiny child. "Or maybe that?"

"Dad, that's a tree." I giggle.

"Really? You don't say!" He winks at me, and I laugh harder.

"You two are extreme dorks," John says, sighing.

"LOOK!" Alex screeches, pointing out the window. "IT'S A MOOSE!"

John slams on the brakes. "ALEXANDER! I almost crashed into that tree!"

"Sorry," he says sheepishly. "But look!"

Alex is right- there's a whole herd of moose out the window, families with baby moose that are still toweringly enormous. They're walking around through the grass, making cow-like noises at one another. Alex is grinning, but the person who looks most excited is John. His eyes are wide, and he's grinning in a way that lights up his whole face.

I carefully climb out of the car, and walk slowly toward the herd. Alex follows me, trying not to make any noise. John is next to me, holding my hand and bouncing in excitement like he's the child in the situation. He walks a little closer to the moose-

Did you know that a moose attack is kind of hilarious and terrifying to watch at the same time? Neither did I, until today. The moose simply nudges John, and he falls over. It's not an attack as much of a simple declaration of, "I AM MOOSE!"

"Are you okay, Daddy?" I run over and pull him off the ground, and he spits out some pine needles.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just my pride is wounded." He stands up and brushes off his pants. "Where's your father?"

I look around. "I actually have no idea. I was too concerned with the fact that you got attacked by a moose."

The van door slams, and we both run towards it. Alex is inside, sitting in the passenger seat and wrapped up in the picnic blanket. When we get into the car, I notice that his eyes are red.

"What's wrong, Dad?" I hug him.

"I planned this whole weekend to be perfect, and it's all going wrong." He sounds sad and tired. For the first time, I can see a few grey hairs scattered in among the black. "I know I've been working too hard, so I took this weekend off for us, for the family. The car broke down, Kathryn got soaked, and you got attacked by a moose!"

John wraps him in a hug. "I'm fine, see, baby?"

"I know you are, but everything's going wrong. It's our first family vacation, and now Kathryn's not going to have good memories of it."

I hug him too. "Dad, I had a lot of fun today. Even if some things didn't quite go as planned, we're still making memories together as a family, and that's what matters, right?"

"I guess you're right." Alex hugs both of us.

There's a strange sound from the back of the van, almost like a mooing. John looks up, and his jaw drops.

"Alex, why is there a baby moose in the car?"